Jessica Bell’s Fabric is a rich collection of poems that take the reader on a deep tour of the psyche. Charting and moving across politics of language, Bell explores love, pain, failure and redemption from a variety of angles. Most of the poems sit at the fragile threshold of instinct and meaning, using symbol and sensation to get to the shock of denouement.
A review of In the Beech Forest by Gary Crew and Den Scheer
In the Beech Forest is pure magic. Crew’s language is delightfully poetic; read aloud, his words slip off the tongue. With a master’s hand reminiscent of the great Edgar Allan Poe, Crew builds tension line by line.
A review of The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Within deWitt’s book there’s also a side-text about the destruction of the balance of nature and the consequences of a rabid search for gold, whether it be black gold or the original deal, as here. In the end, it’s all fool’s. And on a cheerier note: Yes, brushing your teeth can be an ineffable delight, truly.
A review of Fraulein by Ellen von Unwerth
Ellen von Unwerth’s photography is intriguing, transgressive and erotically charged. She’s like a real-life Laura Mars, for those who know the Faye Dunaway film. Only the vital tableaux in Fraulein are too lively and vivacious to make for any crime scene photo.
A review of Endgame by Frank Brady
Anyway, there’s a nice account here (in chapter 15) of Fischer looking for an apartment in Reykjavik in his last years, complaining and kvetching all the while. (Brady writes that, ‘Before he made a move, everything had to be perfect.’ Just as with his chess.) Read in a certain light, it’s hilarious and you could very well imagine it as a Woody Allen sketch. Now what does that tell you?
A review of Camera Obscura by Rosanne Dingli
Through careful layering of mystery and character development, Rosanne Dingli has created another deeply engaging and powerful novel in Camera Obscura. As is always the case with Dingli’s work, the research is impeccable, enlivened by art, by a deep love of travel and exploration, and above all, by the conjunction of personal and global, art related, history.
Notes on an African-American Canon in Cinema: On Sidewalk Stories, Daughters of the Dust, Eve’s Bayou and other films
African-Americans have wanted to claim and define their own public images in every art—literature, paintings, sculpture, dance, music, film, videos, television. The presentation of African-Americans in the legendary moving picture Birth of a Nation—which presented blacks as both culturally ambitious and personally barbarous—was a continuation of old stereotypes that led to actual violence against blacks. People—blacks and whites—protested the film, inspiring its director D. W. Griffith to make Intolerance, an anti-prejudice reaction to his own film. The African-American image has yet to cease to be controversial.
Different Voices, Different Eras, and the Way to Soulville: The Very Best of Aretha Franklin
Franklin’s voice is less pretty and pristine than ever in the soft hip-hop funk of “A Rose Is Still A Rose,” in which the narrator offers an older woman’s advice to a younger woman after a hurtful affair, affirming esteem and sense, but it is a sign of genius that Franklin’s performance is quite potent.
Human Beings, Hoping Machines: Note of Hope, Woody Guthrie’s words, given music by bassist Rob Wasserman, with Van Dyke Parks, Madeleine Peyroux, Tom Morello, Michael Franti, Nellie McKay, Chris Whitley, and Jackson Browne
Michael Franti’s jazzy, sensual interpretation of “Union Love Juice” makes Guthrie sound like a blend of Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and LL Cool J. Michael Franti’s voice is confident, low, masculine, and suggestive. “I am the meat and the flower of sex,” sings Franti, confidently, coolly.
A review of Cocoa Almond Darling by Jeffra Hays
Hays pulls no punches in telling this tender love story with intense emotion. The characters can be frustrating and you’ll find yourself wanting to shake them. Master is in just as torn and confused a state as Millie and you want to slap him at times. It is a very well written book and although it ended absolutely perfectly, I hated to see it end.